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Retired Stanford Trees have found a home in Green Library

The Stanford Tree, which began life as a spoof on mascots by the Stanford Band, made its first appearance during a Big Game halftime program in 1975. The Tree proved popular with students and Cardinal fans alike – and the rest, as they say, is history.

Eleven Trees have already taken up residence in the room, including an evergreen of fluffy lime-green tulle, a palm with a spinning topknot of multi-colored cotton fronds, and a maple with reversible leaves of red and green satin.

The Trees hang in threesomes on rolling garment racks, each costume suspended by an ingenious system of cardboard tubes, chain link ropes and carabiners that are designed to accommodate the costumes, which vary widely in height, weight and diameter.

The Trees appear dejected without their humans, the students who sewed their leaves, needles, branches and fronds, attached their goofy faces, and hefted the towering contraptions on their shoulders.

Some of the Trees wear crumpled white bucket hats with red trim – a nod to the musicians of the Stanford Band who perform in red blazers and white bucket hats with red trim.

The Stanford Tree, which made its debut in 1975 during the Big Game against the University of California, Berkeley, is the mascot of the Stanford Band – not of the university.

A copse of Stanford Trees engaged in “The Walk” before the 2016 Reunion Homecoming football game. During “The Walk,” the Stanford Band parades around campus, playing at various tailgate parties, then meets the football team and its fans and follows them as they make their way to Stanford Stadium (accompanied, of course, by its Trees past and present). Left to right: Nicoletta von Heidegger (2012-13 Tree), Sarah Young (2015-16 Tree), Sam Weyen (2016-17 Tree), Evan Meagher (1999-2000 Tree) wearing the costume of Benjamin Cortes (2010-11 Tree), Alex Newell (2000-01 Tree), Michael Samuels (2011-12 Tree) and Will Funk (2014-15 Tree). Image credit: Alvaro PonceA pair of Stanford Trees meet in September 1980 during the Stanford vs. Boston College football game. Stanford University Archives has amassed 150,000 photographs of the Band, including many of its Trees. The photo collection can be viewed online in its exhibit, “Incomparable: The Stanford Band.” Image credit: Robby Beyers / Stanford Libraries Special CollectionsAt the end of the 2003 Commencement ceremony, the Stanford Tree, also known as alumnus Chris Henderson (1998-99 Tree), takes the stage to entertain the crowd. Image credit: L.A. CiceroChuck Armstrong performs his trademark dance one last time as a student following the 2004 Commencement ceremony, accompanied by the Stanford Band and the Dollies, its dance team. Image credit: L.A. CiceroBefore he became a professor (teaching) of microbiology and immunology at Stanford Medicine, Bob Siegel was a Stanford Tree (1977-78). Siegel, who inherited the original costume from the first Tree, has refurbished the costume over the decades. He still slips into the costume a couple times a year for campus events, as in this photo taken during the 2015 Reunion Homecoming with Rachel Aumann, assistant dean of students. Image credit: Courtesy Bob SiegelBen Cortes (2010-11 Tree) welcomes prospective first-year students to the Farm with a wide, toothy smile during an Admit Weekend event held in White Plaza. Image credit: L.A. CiceroThe 1994-95 Stanford Tree, created by Ari Mervis, contemplates the floor of the Band Shak, its former home. The Tree now lives in a climate-controlled room in Green Library, along with 10 other retired Trees.Image credit: Courtesy Sam WeyenSometimes, the Tree is a palm, as in this costume designed by Stanford student Tommy Leep (2006-07 Tree), seen here performing after Commencement alongside the Dollies, the dance team of the Stanford Band. Image credit: L.A. CiceroSam Weyen, a Stanford student who served as the 2016-17 Tree and will be producing an oral history of the Trees, strikes a pose in the 1980-81 Stanford Tree costume created by Judy Mischel. Image credit: Courtesy Sam WeyenAlex Newell (Stanford Tree 2000-01) and her friend Pablo Hambly celebrated the end of their years as undergraduates at Stanford at the stadium on June 16, 2002.Image credit: L.A. CiceroErin Lashnits (2005-06 Tree) added a giant mortarboard to the costume for graduation, making a towering Tree even taller. Image credit: L.A. CiceroSam Weyen (2016-17 Tree), who will be producing an oral history of the Trees for Stanford University Archives, dances down Galvez Street, followed by the Dollies and the Band. Image credit: Alvaro PonceIsaac Salier-Hellendag (2004-05 Tree) celebrated the end of his year as the Tree and his graduation from the Farm. Image credit: L.A. CiceroA Stanford Tree casts a side-glance at the pileup of Trees in a closet of the Band Shak, home of the Leland Stanford Junior Marching Band and of its beloved, bemusing and bewildering mascots. Image credit: L.A. CiceroA pair of Stanford Trees watch as Sarah Newton, a conservation technician at Stanford, begins designing custom garment bags for each costume housed in the University Archives collection, using a synthetic fabric that museums use to protect treasures during shipping and storage.Image credit: L.A. CiceroHe’s too young to join the collection of retired Stanford Trees in Green Library, but the 2017-18 Tree, also known as Anaxi Mars, recently visited the library’s Lane Reading Room, where the aisles are wide, the ceilings are high and the arch windows let in lots of natural light. A perfect place for a Tree to study.Image credit: L.A. Cicero

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Students who bequeath their Trees to the university can bring them back to life at any time, checking them out of Green Library like books – say, to join other Trees performing in the halftime program in Stanford Stadium during Reunion Homecoming.

Over the last year, Daniel Hartwig, university archivist, has transported several Trees from the library to the Band Shak – home of the Stanford Band and of its Trees – and back again.

He said University Archives, which collects materials of any type that document the history of Stanford, has amassed 150,000 photographs of the Band, which can be viewed here in its online exhibit, “Incomparable: The Stanford Band.”

“If we really want to capture the history and legacy of the Band, we also have to collect the Trees, which are a central part of the Band,” Hartwig said.

A retirement home of sorts

Currently, the oldest Tree in the collection is a pear-shaped evergreen created by Judy Mischel, ’83, who accessorized the costume with four-fingered brown gloves.

The vault is also the safe house of the Tree that was kidnapped, blindfolded and held captive for two weeks the fall of 1998 by students at Cal, an event covered by newspapers far and wide. As the story goes, the Tree was returned unharmed to the Berkeley Chancellor’s office late one Friday afternoon.

“A UCPD officer immediately escorted the Tree to the Stanford Police Station, where it remains, under armed guard, in the evidence room,” the Stanford Daily reported the following Monday. “The costume’s owner and wearer, Chris Henderson, will reclaim the Tree in time for Tuesday’s women’s volleyball game.”

While Stanford has created a sanctuary for retired Trees, the university is not cleaning or repairing the one-of-a-kind costumes. For some Trees, the library will be their “forever home,” because they are too fragile or damaged to relive their glory days. Some are missing key features, such as their internal frames, which students recycled in later Trees.

First Tree, much repaired, lives on

The Band proposed a “tree theme” on a lark in 1975, four years after the Stanford “Indians” became the “Cardinal” – the color, not the bird – leaving the university without a mascot.

During the Big Game program that year, the Band adopted a tree theme for the halftime program. A “tree queen” was carried in on a wooden platform, surrounded by flower-tossing “wood nymphs” and accompanied by the first Tree, Christina “Chris” Hutson, an undergraduate biology major.

Hutson and a friend had stayed up all night creating the costume – using a bed sheet, a hula hoop, a large chunk of wood wedged into a scuba backpack and a 2-foot-tall Styrofoam cone. The first Tree was covered in construction paper leaves – red in deference to the towering redwood on the university seal.

“It was supposed to be a spoof on mascots, not the real thing,” two former Band members told Stanford magazine in the 2000 article, “Hey, At Least It’s Not a Chicken.”

But the Tree proved popular, and the mascot was born.

Hutson, who later spray-painted the costume green, continued performing as the Tree the following year while earning a master’s degree in biology. That was the year that “Oski,” the Cal Bears’ mascot, tackled her.

“The Band broke formation – though I’m not sure they were ever in formation – and came to pull the bear off me,” she said. “The bear was pulling off my leaves. The Band got me back on my feet and I danced some more.”

Despite the bear attack, Hutson became a veterinarian (small animals).

Hutson bequeathed the costume to Bob Siegel, a conga player in the Band, who served as the Tree during the 1977-78 academic year and is now a professor (teaching) of microbiology and immunology at Stanford Medicine. Over the decades, Siegel tended the Tree, adding new leaves of paper and felt.

“There were lots of other jerry-rigged repairs and additions as the Tree progressively fell apart,” said Siegel, who still slips into the costume a couple times a year for campus events.

Custom garment bags, oral histories

In coming weeks, Sarah Newton and Jill Sison, conservation technicians who work in the Stanford Libraries Conservation Lab, will create custom garment bags for the Trees, using a synthetic fabric that museums use to protect treasures during shipping and storage.

They recently brought some of the tools of their trade – including a portable sewing machine, polyester thread and 50 yards of white fabric – to Green Library, where they will design and sew the garment bags.

“The Trees, which are among the largest items I’ve housed, are too large for any box-type enclosures,” Newton said. “The students used different materials and construction methods, so there is nothing very predictable about the size, shape and design of the costumes. Each one is an individual.”

The final step in the Tree conservation project will be an oral history. And who better to conduct those interviews than a former Tree?

“Everything that followed that first Tree, which began as a joke, arose chaotically and organically,” he said. “It wasn’t until 2016 that we finally had a complete list of every person who’s ever donned the leafy crown. I’m excited to learn just how the red paper costume that Chris Hutson wore on the field in 1975 evolved into the beloved, bemusing and bewildering tradition it is today as I get to know the people who led the transformation.”

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